👉 The more people become proficient in living the Scrum Values, the more successful the use of Scrum will be.
When the Scrum values are embodied by the Scrum Team and the people they work with, the empirical Scrum pillars come to life, building trust.
Reminder: the Scrum Values are Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage.
Is there any impact of living (or not) the Scrum Values on the Artifacts...? And if so what would this impact possibly be...?
The Scrum Guide states that each artifact contains a commitment to ensure it provides information that enhances transparency and focus against which progress can be measured.
- For the Sprint Backlog this commitment is the Sprint Goal.
This implies that the Scrum Team Commits to put their efforts in the Sprint Backlog so that all Developers have the same understanding when looking at the Sprint Backlog, and that this transparency allows them to measure progress towards the Sprint Goal. - Openness and Respect will support bringing this transparency. Being open to understand the colleagues and respecting their experiences allows the team to identify the work that is really needed to reach the Sprint Goal.
- New work will be identified during the Sprint. Having the Courage to admit work was overlooked, and often could not have been identified earlier, allows to discuss the best way forward asap. Again, make these new insights transparant asap in the Sprint Backlog.
- The Sprint Goal, part of the Sprint Backlog, should be the Focus for the team. A razor-sharp focus on the Sprint Goal will ensure the team can deliver. Sprint after Sprint.
These are only one example of how each Scrum Value supported improving the Sprint Backlog.
Summary:
Using the Scrum Values as a guide for the Scrum Team how to behave during the entire Sprint will support raising transparency, which is the purpose of the Artifacts. For the Sprint Backlog this means raising the transparency on what the Developers plan to accomplish during the Sprint to reach the Sprint Goal .
The more the team becomes skilled in living the Scrum Values, the more transparent the Sprint Backlog will be.
Prompt
Together with your Scrum Team, evaluate how living the Scrum Values can still improve Sprint Backlog Transparency.
How do you see that the values of Commitment, Courage, Focus, Openness and Respect are lived? What can you do to make the Scrum Team live these even better?
I hope you find value in these short posts and if you are looking for more clarifications, feel free to take contact.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the core concepts we are covering in this blog series, then surely check out our Professional Scrum MasterY workshop. We have some scheduled in the coming period.
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